“How To Improve Patient Compliance Using
Persuasion
Tactics”

Persuasion is the
ultimate marketing
tool for
physicians because you are good at it.

No doubt about it.
Persuasion, in all its forms, is a formidable medical
practice ally and marketing
strategy which gives physicians the ability to move a
patient from skepticism to one of agreement. Depending on
your persuasion knowledge and your use of the factors that
makes it work, your effectiveness will vary considerably.

Of course, you may in
your mind be quite confident you have the bull by the
horns on this issue. Remarkably, most physicians are
practicing with persuasion approaches they learned earlier
in life by trial and error. They may do a reasonable job
for you most of the time. But, wouldn’t it be more
profitable to you to have it work
every time?

Every doctor
has had a patient who refused to agree to a
certain treatment or surgery procedure which the doctor
knew would cure a medical problem or disease process.
Yet, all the health information given to the patient, pro
and con, didn’t phase the patient’s decision one bit.

You
ask yourself, “Why am I not able to convince this patient
I’m sure of what I say and know it’s the right advice,
given at the right time, however you slice it.”

My patient in 1975 was
a registered nurse about 34 years of age, former cheer
leader, blustering with life, slender, healthy, and
complained she had noticed unusual vaginal bleeding that
was persistent. Five years ago her last pap smear was
reportedly normal. This time it wasn’t. A cervical
biopsy proved the Class 5 pap result was fact. With her
husband we discussed all the appropriate therapies for
treatment of a Stage I
cervical cancer.

I advised total
hysterectomy and to go for a high assurance of
curability—she refused. She refused radiation as well,
and her husband didn’t hesitate a second to agree with her
decision, even understanding the probable outcome. She
had worked for a herbal medicine doctor for many years and
knew she could cure the cancer with herbal medication.
Mind you, she was quite intelligent, and believed totally
in alternative medicine cures.

After she agreed to an
Oncology consult (my last ditch effort), kept the
appointment, and we never saw her again. Almost 2 years
later, the local hospital emergency room physician called
to tell me he had one of my patients there in distress.

Five minutes later on arrival at the emergency department
I did not even recognize who it was, until I saw her
husband. Although moribund, she recognized me, could only
talk in a whisper, and could barely lift her arm off the
stretcher. After our tearful reunion, she died the next
day in the hospital.

For two years, I
hadn’t forgotten her, but I kept asking myself the same
question doctors ask themselves. What I know now about
persuasion might have made a difference in her survival
back then.

Effective
approaches are:

1.Get the patient’s non-distracted attention. You change
the moment for them with words.

9.Contact mind-reading. Body language of the
patient leads
you to the solution.

As you undoubtedly
understand, each of these has many facets which you can
use for implementing your verbal effectiveness on the
patient in a persuasive positive way. This is not a list
of theoretical gibberish. These are well
documented maneuvers used for eons by wise practitioners who are
willing to put some effort into learning them.
Incredibly, each works extremely well 90% or more of
the
time.

And yes, I’m not here
to sell you on these things or make you believe them, it’s
up to you to prove it to yourself. My view is that every
physician continues to seek new and better ways to
communicate with their patients thereby becoming more
effective in the treatment of their patients, and, at the
same time, increasing you reputation
in
the community.

Persuasion is not a
tactic taught in medical school. But, it’s a tool that
can be very effectively used to improve your professional
expertise, provide far better medical care, and improve
your personal self-esteem. If you do what no other
doctors are doing---it’s called marketing your practice.

Joel Bauer, Mark Levy,
David Lakhani, Kevin Hogan, Robert Cialdini, Michael
Masterson, and many others have spent a life-time
learning, researching, teaching, and using persuasive and
influential techniques which make a huge difference and
improvement in people’s lives—including doctors.

What’s in it for
you--and your marketing expertise?

How many times a day
in your practice do you think you use persuasive tactics,
influence strategies, and your mind power to entice your
patients to accept you advice and follow your treatment
options? Actually, you probably in one way or another,
using one persuasion strategy or another, use persuasion
on every single patient—and probably are completely
unaware you are doing it.

All you need to do is
improve on those abilities. Read the books by those
experts mentioned above. Let it sink in. Use it.

These same marketing
strategies add passion to your public speaking,
credibility to your comments at hospital and peer group
meetings, and competence to your patient’s eye.

You gain respect,
admiration, and referrals.

Did you ever consider
persuasion anything more than a patient walking out of
your office with your advice under their arm and a smile
on their face—let alone a marketing tactic? That was me
for too many years.

Marketing strategies
are what makes the difference between owning a Buick or
owning a BMW, a family vacation twice a year instead of
once, an income that matches your lifestyle dreams or one
which compromises your needs and desires, your kids
college education paid for or requiring them to work their
way through, among others.

**********************************

Patrick Henry had it
right when he said, “Give me marketing, or give me
failure.” .... Or, have I misquoted him?

The author, Curt Graham, is a highly experienced business and marketing expert,
copywriter, and entrepreneur who has been published in various media
over 50 years while in medical practice and after.